National Briefing | MICHIGAN

School fined for murder cover-up

Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti agreed to pay $350,000 in fines for covering up the rape and murder of a student in her dorm room.

After the body of Laura Dickinson, 22, was found in December 2006, university officials told her parents and the media that she died of asphyxiation and that there was no sign of foul play, despite evidence to the contrary. Orange Taylor III, 21, was arrested in February 2007, convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

The university president and others were fired, and the school paid Dickinson's family $2.5 million. The fines, to go to the U.S. Education Department, are for violating a federal act requiring schools to disclose security information.